These gems popped into my Facebook feed on just the right day. It was finally a little cool out; despite the recent arrival of Fall, we’ve had a lot of 80 degree weather over there and that kept me thinking about peaches instead of pumpkins. But the temperature dropped, 10-year-old Nathaniel was home with a cold, and with a bit of a chill in the air, pumpkin beckoned.
I admit they didn’t look beautiful. Mine certainly didn’t look like the ones in the pictures on Two Peas and Their Pod. Their cookies looked so round and smooth and uniform; mine were lumpy and misshapen and each one looked like it came with its own individual personality. It doesn’t matter, though. Despite their looks, these cakey cookies were delicious little bursts of sweetness and fall, combined into tiny, squishy packages.
My biggest challenge was actually being able to tell when they were done. The first batch came out looking strikingly similar to the way they went in, and after that I started flattening them before popping them into the oven, which helped a little.
While my daughter had no interest in them — she’s a tough customer for anything with chocolate chips — my son loved them as much as I did, and they didn’t last more than two days.
HEALTHY PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES (adapted from Two Peas and their Pod)
ingredients:
2/3 + 1/2 cup whole wheat white flour
1/3 cup wheat germ1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled
1/2 cup cane sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar (I used sucanat)
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla crush (extract or bean paste is fine)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees, and line or grease a couple of cookie sheets.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, wheat germ, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.
In the bowl of stand mixer, combine the coconut oil and the sugars. Mix well. Add pumpkin and vanilla and mix well.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and fold in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.
Scoop into small balls and flatten gently with a spoon. (They’ll look better.)
Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cookies are firm. (They’re supposed to brown around the edges, but that didn’t really happen for me.)
Let sit on the tray for another two minutes, then move to a wire rack. You can try storing them in an airtight container, but they won’t last that long anyway. They’re addictive.
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